Pitfalls Of Being Kerry (yawn)

As Front-runner, He Can't Act Like One

WASHINGTON — The old John Kerry, the one with the long speeches and winding responses to questions, seems to be inching back onto the campaign stage.

Political experts see signs that Kerry is slowly edging his way into the front-runner's trap: Make sure you don't offend anyone, give all supporters something they can be happy with and make sure you don't say anything that will stoke controversy.

Kerry has a growing number of supporters to please these days, and in doing that, he risks looking tentative, wordy and dull -- the very criticisms that dogged his candidacy throughout 2003 and almost cost him a shot at the nomination.

``When you're the front-runner, everyone wants to give you advice,'' warned Rita Whillock, professor of public affairs and corporate communication at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. ``You also become afraid of blowing the lead.''

As the Massachusetts senator marches through the primary season winning at least one state so far every voting day, he is rapidly accumulating the support of sophisticated interest groups as well as past rivals such as Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt and retired Gen. Wesley Clark. They have supporters who want a say.

The AFL-CIO, whose members were largely sympathetic to Gephardt and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, is the latest such constituency to hop on the bandwagon. But the endorsement by the 13 million-member union organization shows the problem Kerry has leading this expanding parade of Democrats.

Kerry was a proponent of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which unions still see as a key reason jobs have left this country, and he has to convince many reluctant union members that he'll make their case.

``I am worried about what he'll do on trade. He's obviously taking a different position than he has in the past,'' said Philip A. Wheeler, director of United Auto Workers Region 9A in Farmington. The UAW has not endorsed a candidate.

Although Kerry did not specifically address NAFTA when he accepted the AFL-CIO endorsement, he sure sounded like he was on the workers' side. ``I pledge to you, I will insist on real worker and environmental provisions in the core of every trade agreement,'' he said.

Kerry also has to keep his longtime loyalists happy. The League of Conservation Voters made an unusually early endorsement last month, backing the senator because of his strong environmental record.

He hardly has to convince that crowd he's on their side, but by discussing his record and his views, Kerry was helping himself, league President Deb Callahan said.

``This is a guy trying hard to get people to know him,'' she said.

Something else that afflicts politicians with a long history of winning races could be happening to Kerry, too. He is using what he thinks works -- but what worked in a U.S. Senate campaign in which 2.5 million people vote is not necessarily what's needed in the 10-state national primary that takes place March 2.

``A little bit of fatigue could be setting in,'' Callahan said, ``but I think he really wants to make himself known to voters in each state, and he doesn't like quick talking points.''

That presents a problem as the nominating season heads for its biggest week yet: Kerry still has to push glib, charming North Carolina Sen. John Edwards out of the way.

``Edwards is just a fabulous communicator,'' said Alan Schroeder, a media and politics expert at Northeastern University. ``He really has an ability to talk to people without orating.''

Kerry lacks that skill, Whillock said. ``It's the difference between having been a U.S. senator, where you can filibuster, and being a trial lawyer, who knows that if he talks too long, the judge will cut him off,'' she said.

Kerry has had a wobbly week communicating. First came the Feb. 15 Wisconsin debate where Kerry was asked whether he felt some responsibility for casualties in Iraq because he voted for the war. After Kerry's lengthy answer, Edwards grinned and told him it was ``the longest answer I ever heard to a yes or no question.'' Kerry, who needs to unite the party's anti-war contingent with those who backed the war, never did answer yes or no.

On Feb. 16 in Green Bay, Wis., Kerry followed a rousing, five-minute introduction by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a master at igniting a crowd, with a 40-minute speech, going point by point through his agenda as the audience listened politely.

The next night, even though Kerry beat Edwards by 6 percentage points in Wisconsin, it was Edwards who gave the upbeat, energetic speech, while Kerry again offered a dry, by-the-numbers case against President Bush.

And Thursday, as he received the AFL-CIO endorsement, Kerry drew few roars from the Washington crowd as he read his 15-minute speech.

Is this a return of Walter Mondale or Al Gore, both of whom arguably lost their elections in part as a result of the same factors?